I'm still hopeful. They really only said that they would keep larger projects closer to home and only give other companies little tasks in the meantime, like the Defiant Pack. Just because Saber Interactive isn't making it doesn't mean that 343i isn't, which is something they have never outright denied.

My friends that went to PAX East got me a code for Defiant. Unearthed is seriously the best Firefight map currently in the game, as it's the only one where vehicle combat is even possible. Also, the on-foot portions of the map are really good for Firefight, almost like if Holdout was a better map.

The two multiplayer ones look really good, but I only got to play with two other players, so I don't know how they really work.

The two multiplayer maps feel very much like Halo 2, Unearthed is a lot like an ODST Firefight map. There are absolutely no Forge capabilities with the maps other than weapon, crate, and vehicle placements. They aren't Sandbox, Foundry, or Forge World, I'll put it that way.

Highlands has a Terminal feel to it, a mixture of grassy land with a lot of buildings where vehicles spawn. Size-wise, it's about the average between Boardwalk and Hemorrhage, possibly the size of Valhalla from Halo 3. There aren't any tanks or aerial vehicles, just the normal vehicle set (Warthog x2, Mongoose x4, Ghost x2) so at least people won't be able to boost using cheap Banshee Dancing tactics. The outer parts of the map are very lowrez, but as this is Certain Affinity's first map since Halo 2 I don't really blame them, but it would be nice if in the future they used the same tree models and not early Xbox "+ from above" trees.

Condemned also feels like a Halo 2 map, none in particular, but has that feel. It has a resemblance to Orbital, but it's more like a circle where you can cut through the center's low gravity area. 4v4 on the map would probably only be fun if you were using the new Classic settings, but for normal Reach settings I'd say it's a pretty good 6v6 map. There are no vehicles, but there are plenty of power weapons (Shotgun, Sword, Sniper x2, Rocket Launcher). Visuals are amazing, but one thing that bothers me is the fact that they screwed up and put Reach's ringed moon in the skybox twice. Also, if you actually looked at the map the ringed structure is much more damaged than the hologram in the communications room says it is, as there are two points that are completely ripped off. Of course, that may just be because of the whole, "we couldn't decide what kind of skybox we wanted so here's two completely different ones," thing they did.

Unearthed is really big for a Reach Firefight map, probably the size of Beachhead or Glacier, but despite that there's absolutely no framerate lag. At some points the AI will just get so aggressive they'll follow you all at once into the back rooms when you run, which is a nice change from the combatically challenged Grunts and Elites on Corvette. Really nice vehicle map, and lots of places to make final stands that look and feel awesome.

Sounds like it can wait. So far I've been extremely disappointed in Reach's map selection. It's got 100x more potential than H3, but they haven't tapped into it yet. And I wish they'd get off this "it's gotta be set on Reach" idea. It's multiplayer, I don't care where it's set, but I want things to look unique.

***EDIT*** Reach is discounted through Games On Demand for one week starting today. It's only $10 off (49.99) but that might be enough to push it over the edge.

True, but then again this topic has already reached to 33pgs and so if something really valuable that specifically relates to the Halo game itself like an update then it can be posted here but otherwise I think its wise to post it in a separate thread seeing as how this section is about XBL.